1955年10月8日：享譽麻省及加州兩大理工學院、曾經參與曼克頓計劃的火箭專家錢學森, 從久居的美國抵達香港。面對記者圍訪，錢氏不迎不拒，長問短答。臨別時、他只向滿口英語、不諳國語的香港記者回贈了這一句：華人總要說點國語吧。接着就攜眷乘火車北上。甫入華界邊城深圳，錢氏立即受到樣板的英雄式歡迎。此後榮寵有加，不在話下。至於錢氏的棄美歸華，與其說是因為周恩來的無量功德，毋寧說是因為麥卡錫的無限上綱。

有此傳聞：艾森豪威爾政府暗以錢氏換回11名在韓戰被俘的美國空軍飛行員。不管該項傳聞屬實與否，錢氏確是決意舉家返回中國的。況且，這位專研改善airframe來增速、卓有成就的尖端科才，早已因麥卡錫而投閒置散了好幾年。一旦北京招手，能不感激知遇？事實上，對於錢氏、北京果然不虛前席。

For a fair and balanced book-length account of Qian Xuesen's contribution to China’s missile development, check out the late Iris Shun-ru Chang’s Thread of The Silkworm (1995).

Airframe (the structure of an aircraft): In case you enjoy thriller novels popular with the informed public, you might want to check out the late Michael Crichton's Airframe (1996), if you haven't yet.

…

Is McCarthyism still haunting America?

Around 1950, Republican US senator Joseph R. McCarthy was facing a tough re-election in his home state of Wisconsin. This was also a tough time for Americans who were witnessing the CCP’s takeover of Mainland China while the Soviet Union was catching up as the second nuclear power.

Channeling national angst into a self-serving campaign, McCarthy managed to regain his political fortune by blanketing America with Red Scare. Richard Nixon, a Republican young turk, picked up McCarthyism and ran with it, thus advancing his political career spectacularly. Nixon was not alone.

McCarthy's witch hunt for Communist sympathizers led to the detention and deportation of US-trained Qian Xuesen (Tsien Hsue-shen), later known as the Father of Chinese Rocketry. Cases of witch-hunt victims kept piling up until McCarthyism peaked four years shy of McCarthy’s death in 1957.

For the record, it was Owen Lattimore, himself a witch-hunt victim, who coined McCarthyism in his book titled Ordeal by Slander, which I highly recommend for your reading pleasure, if pleasure is the right word here. (It is also worth mentioning that Lattimore was truly an American expert on pre-1949 Mongolia and Manchuria, as attested by his published works.)

Today the far left is using the far right's playbook, re-enacting McCarthyism through Woke and Cancel Culture. Extremists on both sides, though disagreeable to each other, are actually no different from one another when it comes to power grab. Only voters can put every last one of them in his or her place.  

Author: Lingyang Jiang

Image: Google